Overview
In 1964, NBC clerk Michael Eisner made $65 a week. Though he only took one business course in his life--accounting--he did have a head for business: as CEO of Disney, he earned over half a billion bucks in 1997. Though he had no foundation in finance, he averted the bloody dismemberment of Disney by takeover sharks when he took over in 1984, and by May 1998 he earned over $80 billion for Disney stockholders. Not bad for a guy who, on his first day in Walt's old office, met a manager of the film division BVD (Buena Vista Distribution) and innocently asked whether "Disney made underwear."In his memoir, Eisner doesn't air quite as much dirty laundry as we could hope he'd be dopey enough to do. Still, it is revealing, and since it's unheard-of for Hollywood potentates to spill any beans at all, this book is required reading for anyone interested in America's major export, popular culture.We learn a fair bit of personal stuff: the crucial impact of Eisner's sternly withholding father, who drove Michael to succeed and made him less than effusive himself in praising underlings; his favorite book in youth (The Catcher in the Rye); his encounters with more madcap Hollywood types; his brush with death from heart disease; the day he got the idea for Beverly Hills Cop by getting physically roughed up by a Beverly Hills cop; his plan to add the naughtier cartoon character Mortimer Mouse to Mickey's family.Eisner gives us his negotiating secret (be willing to walk), his view of prerelease audience testing of shows ("it's almost worthless"),his management strategy (incite raucous debate within strict institutional checks and balances, then make gut decisions), the key to success in movies and TV (strong two-man partnerships: Lew Wasserman and Sid Sheinberg at Universal, Bob Daly and Terry Semel at Warner Bros., and preeminently Eisner and Frank Wells at Disney). Eisner gives a provocative analysis ofwhy Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Ovitz proved disastrous partners for him at Disney, and even confesses to a few screwups of his own (losing his temper and helping to blow the Disney America historical park development). --Tim AppeloSynopsis
Eisner recounts the story of his rise to creative leadership at ABC-TV, Paramount Pictures, and the Walt Disney Company.
Los Angeles Times
The qualities Eisner shared with the younger Walt Disney became more and more apparent: energy. . .an unpretentious way of presenting himself. . .and perhaps most important, a powerful narrative instinct. . .
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewMichael Eisner's career has spanned 30 years of popular culture. So his autobiography, Work in Progress, serves as a window on the decision- making behind many of this generation's popular television and motion picture creations. It also chronicles the spread of the Walt Disney Company from theme parks to retail stores to the Internet to Times Square.
Growing up on New York's Upper East Side, Eisner learned from his mother how to charm people into doing what he wanted and inherited from his father a trait for not cutting corners. A family man in Hollywood, he serves as both chief executive officer and chief creative officer of the company he's led since age 42. His hands-on style extends to active participation in the 'anything goes' brainstorming sessions known at Disney as 'Gong Shows.' He's not too proud to 'stoop for excellence,' Disney parlance for bending to pick up the trash from the ground at a theme park.
The executive's drive for creating things 'bigger, better, faster, and cheaper' is coupled with a childlike wonder at the company's output. Eisner expresses a soft spot, for instance, for the theatrical version of 'Beauty and the Beast' and confesses to sneaking into the balcony for weekend matinees and 'sharing the enchantment' with the sea of children seeing it for the first time.
'For me, there will always be something special and intensely personal about Beauty and the Beast. In many ways, it represented a homecoming — the closing of the circle. I'd grown up with theater in New York. When I took my first job, I left theater behindandfollowed the audience to movies and television.'
Interwoven throughout the book are Eisner's feelings about his brush with death during a 1994 emergency bypass operation, which occurred just months after the death of his close confidante and executive partner Frank Wells, who was killed in a helicopter crash.
Don't expect dish. Eisner covers the highly publicized executive fallouts with Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Creative Artists Agency chairman Michael Ovitz. But the book ignores, for instance, any treatment of the astronomical severance package Ovitz collected just one year after being hired as president of Disney.
Eisner and his coauthor, journalist Tony Schwartz, who also cowrote Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal, devote a separate chapter to each of the developing Disney enterprises. The end result is an impressive body of work.
Although Disney and its recent acquisition, Capital Cities/ABC, have seen better times, the fact is that in 1984, the company's revenues were billion and $98 million in net income. In 1997, revenues reached $22 billion, and net earnings were nearly $2 billion. The company's market value jumped from $2 billion to $75 billion, and the stock price increased thirtyfold.
That's not Mickey Mouse.
— Laurie Petersen
New York Times
A shrewd marketer with a brilliant sense of what the public will buy. . . .Eisner can shape culture on a global basis like perhaps no other person in history.Los Angeles Times
The qualities Eisner shared with the younger Walt Disney became more and more apparent: energy. . .an unpretentious way of presenting himself. . .and perhaps most important, a powerful narrative instinct. . .Geraldine Fabrikant
[T]he ideal place for this heroic version of Disney's history is probably somewhere between Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in the window of a Disney store. But Eisner has already thought of that.— The New York Times Book Review
Variety
Plenty of goodies. . .It is Eisner's engaging personality, not to mention his formidable achievements, that makes his curious memori such a good read. . .Presents in vivid detail the story of Disney's turnaround.Entertainment Weekly
A fascinating account of hectic boardroom machinations. . .Hilariously dishy. . .An E-ticket ride through the world's swankest summer camp.Hollywood Reporter
A fascinating, grueling account about dealmaking as conducted at the highest levels. . .Eisner's voice comes shining through.The New York Times
A shrewd marketer with a brilliant sense of what the public will buy. . . .Eisner can shape culture on a global basis like perhaps no other person in history.The Los Angeles Times
The qualities Eisner shared with the younger Walt Disney became more and more apparent: energy. . .an unpretentious way of presenting himself. . .and perhaps most important, a powerful narrative instinct. . .Geraldine Fabrikant
[T]he ideal place for this heroic version of Disney's history is probably somewhere between Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in the window of a Disney store. But Eisner has already thought of that. -- The New York Times Book ReviewSarah Bartlett
....[A] reader comes away persuaded that [Eisner] has probably done something special to build Disney into a powerhouse company. But it will fall to another book to explain just what that something is. -- Business WeekJack M. Greenberg
Compelling reading... Eisner is an inspiration to all of us who aspire to make our companies the best they can be.— Wall Street Journal